Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-01-20
IN TELEPHONE EXCHANGE.
Trouble and Annoyances to which the Girls
are Subject


Trouble and AnnoyanceS to which the Girls
are Subject.
visited the telephone exchange, SAYS
a writer in the Boston Post. for the first
time yesterday. I beneld, as the door
was opened, twenty comedy young women
sitting IN long row in easy arm-chairs,
before tables, with endless apparatus be-
fore them. That was the first fact that
grasped. The next one was that these
girls we're not shouting a. all. There was
low, indistinct murmur, and that was
all. AS 1 approached nearer 1 could hear,
in tones not much above whisper, the
ever-monotonous, "Hello! hellon mo.
428." sHello! hello" 'Ye-esw 'Good-
by!'' but one clear voice, in a good
speaking tone, might have been
heard plainly across that whole
room above all the business of making
the connections for over two thousand
people. Every girl had strapped upon
her head, or rather held there by its own
grip, an apparatus composed of crossed
steel bands, which held a small telephone
receiver to her ear. Before her, dangling
by long wire in just such position as
to hang exactly in front of her mouth,
! was the transmitter. Each girl leaned
back in comfortable attitude, and seem
ed entirely cool and unconcerned, while
both hands were occupied in inserting
wires with metal plugs at their ends into
certain holes before her and pulling them
out again. There were rows upon rows of
these little apertures, and every one of
them represented the number of some
body's telephone. Each girl takes
care of limited number OF
calls, which are signaled to her by
the dropping of little metallic tablet
with the number of the callers 1nstru-
ment upon it, but she has within her
reach, in those little apertues that have
mentioned, every one of the telephone
numbers within the radius of tbs ex
change.
"These seem to be young women of ex-
cellent physique said to the supersn-
tonbent, Mr.. Carly, as he invited me to a
seat by his desk.
ave insist upon that" said he: "we
have found that girls of good physique,
healthy young women; are much less like
ly to get ratified than those who are
little weak or i'll. 1t is not that the
work wears upon them so that only
women of unusal physique stand it, but
likely to keep their tempers and main
tain GOODNESS of demeanor. Does it deaf
en- them? [ know of but one case of an
operators hearing being affected, and
that might easily have been from some
other cause. They do not seem TO suffer
much neryously, though there was one
case of hysteria here last week. One of
the girls-that one With the slender figure
n Ior Ic5. L Al
got confused and ratified as we call it,
over series of vexations, and asked to
have substitute placed in her chair.
You see that we keep five substitutes in
the room, to relieve those who desire to
be relieved at any time. Well, this young
woman went into the girls waiting
room, and had an attack of hysteria.
Not infrequently something occurs
on the line-somebody gets impatient
and loses his temper-which troubles the
girls. They generally go into their room
and have good cry, and come back feel
ing better. They certainly seem to like
the work, though the pay is only 81 a
week. The hours are not long, they sit
all day, they are relieved when needful,
and the actual work seems to be agreeable
to them"
There was strumming sound under
the superintendent table. He held a
telephone receiver to his ear and talked
through a movable transmitter on the
table. "Certainly," he said, in a low tone,
81 will relieve YOU" lie summoned a
young woman from the window, and mo-
toned to her to take the chair of one Of the
operators. He had been talking with one
of the girls not fifteen feet away over the
telephone. She could have spoken to
him through the air by turning her head,
but it would have made little noise and
confusion in the roam, and this modern
tower of Babel, this vocal censorium of a
whole city, is as quiet as public library
reading room. The substitute girl took
the others place, "calls" came tumbling
down at the same instant, and somebody
was undoubtedly vexed because he was
not answered for an instant while she
was making the other connection. But
it takes but an instant.
"We like to have people who have tele-
phones come up here" said the superin
tendent. sit gives them an idea how the
thing is done, and we notice that
they seldom get impatient in the
use of their telephones afterward." Ger
tainly these girls were not trifing with
Jnelf WOrR' Inc Supsrlnt enden5
by merely putting an instrument to
his ear can hear every word that
passes between any operator and the
people with whom she talks, and that
seems an unnecessary restraint. Yexa-
ton makes the work harder for the oper-
ator, and she avoids it.
Women are found to be better opera
tors than men, though boys must be en-
pleyed at night, and that is why the
Gay service is better than that of the
night.